Indonesia’s Pelindo II has been given the infrastructure contract for the Kalibaru container terminal project in the Port of Tanjung Priok, north Jakarta, after the government recently halted the bidding process for the project.

Pelindo II said it was still waiting for the presidential decree awarding the project to them so they could initiate the groundbreaking.

The total cost of the Kalibaru project has ballooned to $1.9 billion from $1.1 billion, as it turned out that the government and the state-owned port operator were using different blueprints.

“We are going to tender $1.1 billion for the dredging and infrastructure, while the remainder will be offered to any operating company that would like to invest in the project later on,” Pelindo II president director Richard Joost Lino told The Jakarta Post.

Under the new plan, four new terminals will be added to the existing one, broken down into three container terminals and two fuel terminals, to raise capacity at Kalibaru from 1.9 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of container to 4 million TEUs.

The sea lane will be expanded to twice its size to 300 meters to provide two-way traffic flow.

In the government master plan, the Kalibaru project had envisioned only one container terminal and a 150-meter-wide sea lane.

One container terminal with a capacity of 1.5 million TEUs is expected to be completed by end-2013 and start operating early 2014. The whole project is forecast to be finished in 2017.

The Kalibaru terminal’s expansion is seen to ease container traffic in Tanjung Priok port, which is currently operating above capacity. Container throughput at the port totaled 5.8 million TEUs last year, exceeding its maximum load of 5 million TEUs.

Last week, the government announced it was scrapping the Kalibaru project after short-listing five consortium bidders because it could not afford to jointly finance the project. Under the agreement, the government was supposed to provide $330 million in financial aid for dredging works and the construction of bridges and roads.